Simon Anderson Surfboards

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach 2011 Official Trailer

2011-04-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

Thruster inventor Simon Anderson into Hall fo Fame

2011-04-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Thruster inventor Simon Anderson into Hall fo Fame

S BOARDS 2011

2011-01-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

There will be a few things happening in 2011, primarily with board development. I'm working on a new SXE model called not surprisingly SXE3, a new Mollusc, a new DSC and you can't help but work on more small wave boards. We will continue to refine and hopefully improve most of the range,probably drop some models out while bringing new ones in. I will be updating you on model design development and testing.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Thruster's unveiling at the 1981 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach contest, so that's a decade for every fin.

Machines - I'm very excited about the way our machine is cutting the pre-shapes we use, and that is cleanly and consistently, giving me a great foundation to work from. With the APS machine cutting consistency I can really get creative on the software program and develop the designs beautifully. What this means to you is that custom orders or the Simon stock boards you see in the shop will be accurate with the right balance of rail volume, thickness distribution, rocker curve and outline curve.

Where to get boards –
Sydney -
Manly - Manly Surfboards, 46 North Steyne, Manly 2095. Situated 3 shops North of the Corso and the Steyne Hotel, right opposite the beach. Ph: 02 9976 0591, Email: info@manlysurfboards.com

Gold Coast -
Cooly Surf, 22 Showcase On The Beach, Coolangatta, Qld 4225, at the Kirra end of Greenmount Beach. Ph: 07 5536 1470, Email: damiangoss@yahoo.com

Sunshine Coast -
Coolum Surf, Shop 14/18 - 26 Birtwill Street, Coolum, 4573. Ph: 07 5351 1742,
Email: coolumsurf@bigpond.com

Alex Surf - Unit 9 Grand Palais, 188 Alexandra Pde, Alexandra Headland 4572. Ph: 07 452 6276, Email: alexsurfshop@bigpond.com

Torquay, Victoria –
Torquay Surf , Surf Coast Highway, Torquay, next door to Globe and opposite Rip Curl.
Ph: 03 526 15666

Quiksilver Torquay, Surf City Plaza, Shop 1, Surfcoast Hwy, Torquay VIC 3228. Ph: 03 5261 7544

Note - in Torquay I have the original 6'6 Thruster board surfed on the big day at ‘81Bells on display at Surf World Torquay, Surf City Plaza, Beach Road. See this and many landmark boards in the evolution of surfboards through the ages.

Distributors Outside Australia –

My boards are now available in the US through Michael Baron,
Email:quiksilversurfboards@gmail.com
Quiksilver Surfboards
3205 Production Ave. Suite J,Oceanside, CA 92058. USA
P: 760.433.1000F: 760.721.1098

We are entering into the 2nd year manufacturing Simon Boards in Brazil through Luciano Leao. For any enquiries please contact Luciano at DR. Arberto Seabra 1213, Sao Paulo, SP 05452-001, Brazil. Phone: (11) 30213611, Email:surface@surface.com.br

In Europe our dealers are:
In the UK - Down the Line, Market Square Arcade, Copper House, Hayle, Cornwall, TR274EA, UK. Ph: 017 367 57025, Email: info@downthelinesurf.co.uk Website: http://www.downthelinesurf.co.uk/

In France, through Xavier Barjou at Surf Odyssey,
Email: xavier@surf-odyssey.com
SURF ODYSSEY SARL
5 rue Pitey
40130 CAPBRETON
Tel: 05 58 72 16 99
www.surf-odyssey.com

I'm also part of the Quiksilver Board program, for info go to the website; http://surfboards.quiksilver-europe.com/
Euroglass
529 Avenue de Pascouaou,
40150 Soorts-Hossegor, France
Phone: +33 5584 34185
Email:darren@euroglass90.com

In Japan, distributed by BASE Surfboards Japan: http://www.basesurfboards.jp/

Surftech – We are introducing the XFC and Mollusc models to the Surftech Tuflite range this year. So if you are a fan of the sandwich construction boards have a look at our small range in Surftech Dealer Shops.
In the XFC model the 3 board range are all single to double concave, rounded square tails and FCS fin system. The XFC dimensions - 6'6 x 20 x 2 11/16 6'4 x 19 x 2 1/2 6'2 x 18 3/4 2 3/8 In the Mollusc the 3 boards are all FCS including - 6'10 x 21 x 2 3/4 Swallow tail single to double concave with vee at the swallow. 6'4 x 20 1/4 x 2 5/8 Roundtail single to double concave 6'2 x 20 x 2 /12 Roundtail single to double Surftech also have a new range called Ultraflx, which is a new style epoxy board with interesting flex patterns.
You can check out my range of boards and get info on these technologies if you go to the Surftech website www.surftechaustralia.com.au They are not listed in the US Surftech website as yet.
The Ultraflx range includes 4 XFC boards all rounded square tails, and 4 DK quad model boards all swallow tails, and all featuring the FCS fin system. The XFC's include - 6'3 x 19 x 2 7/16 single to double concave 6'2 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8 single to double 6'1 x 18 5/8 x 2 5/16 single concave 6'0 x 18 3/8 x 2 1/4 single concave The DK boards are single to double concave but with vee in the back half of the board on the bottom, the double concave cuts through this moderate vee deepest at the forward fins and still substantial at the swallow tail. Dimensions include - 6'0 x 20 1/4 x 2 1/2 5'11 x 20 x 2 7/16 5'10 x 19 3/4 x 2 3/8 We will be adding to the Quad Ultraflx range with a 6'6, 6'4 and 6'2 DK board, stay tuned.

Team - To see a few waves of Adam Robertson surfing his home turf way down South of Torquay last week go to: http://vimeo.com/18523644 . See you in the surf,Simon

US JUNIOR - CHESTER NEWLING

2010-12-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

Chester Newling surfing in the San Francisco area on an XFC 6'0 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/4 rounded square, single concave board manufactured in the US.

Chester is the son of Mike Newling, the former Australian tour surfer who came 3rd at the Rip Curl Bells contest in 1982. A former team rider of mine from that era, Mike relocated the family to a place near Half Moon Bay and has enjoyed the good waves nearby, teaching Chester and Marlon his other son how to surf in the cold grey waters. It's nice to be able to make Chester and Marlon a few boards at the start of their journey in surfing and keep the name Newling around the Simon brand.

Mike is in Australia at the moment enjoying a break with the family, away from the photography industry he is involved in back there. All the Newling's, including Mom Nicole and little sister Leilani, have been taking advantage of the good swell and warm weather at Newport Peak, camping out on the beach all day surfing, swimming and relaxing.

EUROGLASS FACTORY FRANCE

2010-10-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Simon, Greg Pastusiak multiple former French champion and Christiaan Bradley at the factory.

Christiaan Bradley and touring serial pest Marc Harden (from Shoreham by Sea near Brighton) at Euroglass in Soorts Hossegor

Christiaan repairing Kelly's contest winner from Trestles, a 5'9 with 5 plug FCS for quad and thruster options.

signing a shape

the light in Phil's bay is pretty good

Simon shaping in the Phil Grace bay at Euroglass. All photos by Pam Newman.

SIMON IN HOSSEGOR, FRANCE SURFING A DSC 7'0

2010-10-05T16:23:00.000-07:00

All photos from Pete Frieden of a session North of Estagnots on a shore
break bank in the afternoon prior to the Quik Pro around 6pm.

The surf was glassy with beautiful peaks left but primarily rights, in
the line up was Taylor Knox, Jordy Smith, Taj and Dan Ross.
Earlier the boys from Globe CJ and Damo Hobgood along with Gabe Kling
and Patrick Gudauskas were throwing themselves along with their boards
through the air in a mind numbing display of speed, power and new age
innovative surfing.

Kierin Perrow was also out laying down his brand of deep rail gashes and
high line floating air drops.

It was a real pleasure surfing with Taylor and the other boys, the spot
was uncrowded and not yet really discovered by the masses as the best
alternative for 3-4 feet plus during high tide on the Hossegor stretch.
Taylor and the others graciously allowed me to catch a couple of waves
and Pete kindly activated the camera coming up with some nice shots of
the old boy.

I'm riding a 7'0 20 1/8 2 13/16 Rounded Pin DSC model with slight single
to double running through a vee in the back half of the board.
The double concave ends at the forward fins so the vee running out the
tail in the last 12 inches is flat sided vee.

I'm really enjoying the wider dimension board in this for me step-up board.
It paddles well catching waves efficiently but still surfs well and
doesn't have the twitchy feel of a narrower just concave bottom board.
This is a nice compliment to riding fish style boards in smaller surf.
When you ride a wider fish board the effect is slower rail to rail
transition, this becomes a smooth feel through turns that you become
familiar with and going back to normal width step-up boards can be
unsettling because they are twitchy and want to initiate the turn too
quickly.

So maintaining a wider step up is generally a good thing especially for
the older, average, unfit or weekend warrior type surfer.
This board also has a foil thickness which essentially is a 70's early
80's style thickness distribution, thicker nose and thinnish tail.
I have incorporated quite a thin tail with flat deck and blocky rails
through the back 2 feet of this board.

This rail makes the 7'0 feel a little slidey at times, which is good for
smaller waves, but can be problematic particularly here in the Atlantic
ocean of France with it's power and tidal influence causing the wave
surface to develop numerous little lumps and currents within the wave
that can make the board slide or drift every now and then in turns.
So I think for here and for step-up boards the normal rail and thickness
distribution is the go, but I do like the vee component in the bottom I
think you can see from the photos that the board gets up on a rail nicely.

You should be able to catch up with all Pete's shots of this good
afternoon of surfing in France through Pete Frieden Surf Photography
somewhere on the world wide web.

Cheers Simon

FRANCE - QUIKSILVER PRO

2010-10-04T21:23:00.000-07:00

The surf in France at the Quiksilver Pro reached epic proportions.

The boys were really excited to be still in the event for Friday at the
main contest venue Culs nu or the Nude beach, 1 kilometre north of La
Nord or La Centrale Hossegor home of the night clubs Rock Food and Dicks
right on the beach.

The waves were pumping with top to bottom pits stretching the length of
the Culs nu bank which is pretty extensive.The contestants were allowed
to surf the extremities of the bank which sometimes meant each surfer
could be up to 300 metres/yards apart.

This made it interesting for the spectators who would sometimes follow
their favourite surfer up the beach (in Kelly's case this was a few
thousand people) 200 metres, only to see them paddle down the bank 300
metres and surf the heat there.

It was interesting for the surfers as well trying to work out prior to
their heat which section to surf.There were times during the day when a
section would start to fire and look like a permanent bank with wave
after wave peeling off in the same spot, only to inexplicably disappear
totally and not break for 2 hours then return.

The team managers or family members and advisers had their work cut out
trying to nail down a solid strategy prior to their man paddling out.
Generally there was 3 sections, Frontski straight out in front of the
contest scaffolding offering freefall late take offs into big right
barrels, up the beach north 200 metres where the Goofy's primarily
preferred to go which again generally was a big right but sometimes a
left on the other side of the peak.

The right up the beach generally was not so current and tide affected,
making the take offs a little more straightforward than out the front
and maybe more of an open exit from the barrel, allowing the goofy's a
better percentage chance of squeaking out without getting clipped or
guillotined and of course the option of picking up the odd left.

These lefts at times were pretty heavy, the Spartan Micheal Bourez got
obliterated trying to take an unrideable left late in his quarter final.
Somehow he got to his feet momentarily before free falling into the abyss.
Owen Wright also had problems on this section breaking 3 boards in
succession on his first 3 waves, eventually running out of his own boards
and being delivered a Tom Whitaker Dahlberg backup board late in the
heat by a scrambling Mick Fanning, only to run out of time needing a midrange
score against Dan Ross who also broke a board during the round 5 heat.
Dan was surfing the 3rd possible section which was about 80-100 metres
to the south of the out front bank.This bank was possibly offering the
longest maybe quickest barrels, it is were Kelly would nail down a 10 in
the semi on Saturday.

It was an epic day of surfing with the Saturday promising to be bigger
for the finals and with the prospect of the surf increasing but the wind
likely to strengthen onshore around midday, the contest director Mikey
Picon and Quiksilver were going ahead early.

It was almost impossible to paddle out from the beach on Friday, on
Saturday it was impossible. Jetski assist was the order of the day.
The waves were epic 8-10 feet pipes spitting sand and air.Many
reputations were enhanced and some made, Kelly and Mick worthy
finalists, Mick deserved winner.

Jordy had a tough quarter against Mick and couldn't find a good one,Dan
Ross had a good one in his quarter 8.50 but couldn't find a backup
wave, Kieren Perrow charged in the expression session but not his quarter,
Ace Buchan had a 9.43 in the quarters but failed to get a second
good score against Mick in the semi. Brett Simpson charged into the semi
finals but couldn't find an open one against Kelly who scored a 10 on the
southern contest section, maybe the wave of the contest.

Kelly nearly drowned after the final and generally there was carnage and
high theatre.Mick and Kelly took 10 minutes to get out with jetski assist
before the start of the final.Mick got off to a good start with a 7 but got
caught inside and manfully attempted to paddle back out but broke his leg rope.
He body surfed a wave in but went over the falls head first then swam in taking
up a few minutes.Kelly couldn't capitalise, catching a pretty good wave but getting clipped after the free-fall takeoff then getting caught inside and washed to near the beach.He then had a couple of attempts to connect with his jetski but somehow
failed to get onboard for awhile, with the jetski even tipping over right near Kelly, almost taking him out.

In the meantime Mick had the backup board with fresh leg rope attached
and was on his way back out.Unfortunately they didn't trade barrel for barrel
in the final, but it was a great day for European surfing and a title I'm sure Mick is very proud to have.Also the first time he has been defending champion and retained the title.

So I guess we have a new contender for the world title race with Mick
right in it, Kelly out in front looking ominous and Jordy by no means gone.

Still some epic surf to be had in Portugal, this year's tour has picked
up the pace a lot,
signing off, Simon

MORE SACRED CRAFT

2010-08-22T21:31:00.001-07:00

Inspecting winning shape by Matt Biolos with replica 6'6 Bells board in the foreground on the floor.

In the shaping bay used at Sacred Craft with Gary taking a close look.

Gary MacNabb, Simon and Rusty Prisendorfer at Sacred Craft. Trivia fact that Simon did a stint shaping with Rusty in the mid 80's.

MORE SACRED CRAFT

2010-08-17T18:51:00.000-07:00

Thruster tribute booth

Scott Bass, Sacred Craft Founder

Trav - WOW

Replica Shapes by Shaping Icons - Pat Rawson, Brian Buckley, Larry Mabile, Matt Biolos and Jason Bennett .

In honoring the 30th year of the Thruster design Sacred Craft organised a shaping contest where these top US shapers shaped from scratch my 6'6 81 Bells Beach semi gun board. They had 1½ hours to shape it from scratch using a power planer and hand tools. After viewing the board for a ½ hour they each had a turn at reproducing this board. It is a difficult task, I have tried copying this board many times in my own shaping bay and have struggled.

The 5 shapers had to work in virtually an open bay to allow spectator viewing. This caused unwanted light streaming in taking away crucial shadows that guide you through, normally showing up tucked under edges, deck lines and all other elements in the shape. Matt Biolos seemed to cope the best by continually taking the shape outside the bay to allow a fresh perspective. His interpretation was clearly the best and was duly awarded the championship.

Good work to all the guy's, it was an interesting exercise I think bringing to the publics attention the skill required to full shape surfboards.

SACRED CRAFT EXPO - SAN DIEGO

2010-08-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

Simon and Shaun, North Narrabeen 1981 Coke 2SM Surfabout.

Shaun Tomson official opening to Sacred Craft Expo, San Diego Saturday 14 August, on Shaun's left Gary McNabb, then Jim Kempton and Simon.

Simon and Peter Townend 1976 World Surfing Champion.

BASE booth at the Sacred Craft.

WOW booth.

Luke Short, Darren Symes, Simon at BASE Factory Showroom, Unit I
6345 Industry Way, Westminster CA 92683. Phone: Ryan 714 7944599.

Tim Stamps, Huntington shaper from Stamps Surfboards, with Simon, Lydia and Luke from BASE at Scratching The Surface premier of the Julian Wilson movie.

LSD at BASE Westminster USA

SHYAMA BUTTONSHAW - TAKES THE DROP

2010-08-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

Shyama Buttonshaw takes the drop down South from Torquay coast on his XFC 5'11 18 1/4 2 3/16 Rounded Square single to tiny double concave.

Better late than never - Shyama's feedback on this board made about 1 month ago and the take off -"Was pretty hairy I ended up face planting the reef on that free fall. Just about knocked my teeth out ha ha. Boards are going great, haven't had any swell to surf the 6'1 yet (step up) but the short board (5'11) is sick." Thanks Shyama keep up the good work.

SIMON IN THE US - AT THE US OPEN 2010

2010-08-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

BMX venue Simon's right VIP grandstand and surf beyond in the background.

Main entrance to the US Open 2010 with the heat draw for the men and women plus juniors.

View from the public grandstand including pier with replay screen on the right side.

Street scene looking up main street from the Huntington Pier entrance Saturday ten to 1

Mick on a DTS - window display front of the Rip Curl shop Pacific Coast Highway Huntington Beach

TEAM NEWS - NEW MODELS

2010-08-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

TEAM NEWS

Adam Robertson has been sponsorless for 18 plus months even after making the final at last years WCT Rip Curl Bells Easter Pro. So we are very pleased to see that Billabong has signed Adam. Well done Billabong, Adam is arguably the 2nd best Victorian surfer of all time, behind only Wayne Lynch and maybe Tony Ray. Obviously it is expensive to do the WQS Tour and give yourself a realistic chance of qualifying to the CT level but now maybe Adam can fulfill his dream, good luck.

In the photo from the 2010 Sri Lanka QS Adam is surfing a 6'1 x 18⅝” XFC model with flat deck and chunky rails, but only 2¼" thick. The rocker is a very slight variation on the usual XFC TSR and was the most successful rocker/board for us on this years Australian leg of the WCT Tour.

We made a good one for Andy at 6'1 x 18⅝ x 2 5/16 rounded square tail, deep single with tiny double, fixed DL Soar fins. This board was a little thin for him however and he passed it on to Roy who has surfed it a few times on the CT Tour, all good.

Jay Thompson lights up Jay Bay for a brief moment in round 2 scoring a perfect 10 and backing this up with an 8 plus ride. The 10 was impressive, a long barrel then some committed turns. For me the 8 point ride was more impressive with a commanding lead in the latter part of the heat after securing the 10, Jay was able to take apart his last wave with power surfing that was as good as any seen so far this year.

Jay has been surfing a BF22 model all year (which is the new generation BX2?) but after bad luck and management and pretty ordinary surf for the first couple of CT events he was losing confidence on the boards we worked pretty hard to develop over the last 2 years I guess. So it was a relief for me and Jay to see him surf so well and get a little momentum and confidence from this one heat. Let’s hope he can go on from here and avoid the looming cut.

The BF22 is a flatter rocker than XFC, Jay is surfing 6'2½ x 19 x 2½ Rounded Square with deep single and tiny double through the fins area (just a high stringer really), there is a little vee at the tail hardly any, the rails are low volume and low soft, a little extra area in the nose plan shape but not the tail, with a pretty thin tail also. Jay and Adam are using Futures fin system, Jay prefers the HS fins and Adam is still testing.

NEW MODELS

I have been working on a model for the past 4 - 5 months called the Toe. Essentially this is a Mollusc style board but has a rounder nose and swallow tail. Also deep single to double concave through the bottom with vee at the swallow.

I like the vee at the back in small wave wide boards with concave because it brings a measure of control and assists in rail to rail turning (helps get the wide board up on a rail quickly). Luckily Don Norris was on hand the other day taking shots so I can bring you some surfing images that give you an idea of how the Toe looks and performs.Personally I like the Toe, it is helping me get up on take offs as I recover from torn rotator cuff shoulder muscles. The round nose gives you something to push against as well as glide onto the wave as you jump to your feet, and because of the extra nose area you can surf a shorter board making tight pocket turns possible.

The board in the photos is a Middle Toe at 6'4 x 21¼ x 2¾ and is best in 2 - 4 feet surf. I have a small wave version at 6'1 x 21¼ x 2¾ this is the Toe model for 1 - 3 feet, also I have made an allrounder version at 6'6 x 19¾ x 2¾ called the Big Toe for 3 - 6 feet surf.

The Toe series will definitely be available this summer and should be in BASE Board Stores soon.

SUP NEWS

2010-07-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

I am working on efficient still water paddling boards that are versatile enough to perform reasonably in the surf. I believe this is a major growth area in SUP and it is an area of particular interest to me.

Recently I went for an extended training/ recreational paddle with a young fit guy and I've gotta say it was daunting and demoralising and left me with dead arms for a week or so. We paddled on normal SUP boards, I was on the 12 foot Water Buffalo and the other guy, RD, on an 11 foot board. The first leg was downwind with the second and third legs into a stiffening south-easter where I struggled.

This led me to the path of going more efficient thru the water and chop to keep up and not work so hard. The spin off design is the Barracuda series of boards. I have designed a board more for still water gliding but I think this impractical given the expense involved in SUP boards so this remains on the drawing board. So I wanted to produce a versatile board with better paddling glide but still able to handle the surf, not necessarily all conditions but your average fullish small type of surf.

The first Barracuda I designed and made is 12 foot, 30½" wide and 4½" thick. The planshape is pointy at both ends, which to me seems like an efficient paddling shape with low nose entry and vee up front for forward glide, combined with a good amount of tail rocker and vee through the bottom to enable rail to rail turning of this big board on the wave face. The surprising thing about surfing this board is the performance which is beautiful on the wave.

The combination of the pinnier tail and vee bottom gives you lovely flow and the fact that the board is 30½” wide seems to make it quite stable standing around waiting for waves, despite the pointy nose planshape. As a result of this prototype surfing so well I have done a follow up design pointier in plan shape with better paddling characteristics maybe more balanced towards still water paddling than surfing. This board will be tested soon and information on whether the Barracuda becomes a Stand Sure model or not will be forthcoming. WOW offer full custom SUP boards through our Australian manufacturing partner Dolphin, so if you like the idea of the Barracuda you can order it now and it will be with you anywhere in Australia within 4 weeks.